P-I archive: Seattle’s old city hall

Today from the seattlepi.com archive we have a story about the 1960s-era city hall that was demolished in 2003 to make way for the current structure at Fourth Avenue and James Street.

Seattle’s first city hall was at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Jefferson Street on property leased by the county from Henry Yesler. In 1916 it moved to what’s now the King County Courthouse, a building that began an addition in 1929.

The 1962 City Hall at Fourth and James was dedicated October 5 of that year after being built for $7 million. The building included a 360-stall parking garage and filled a full city block, as the current building does.

Mayor at the time of the dedication was Gordon S. Clinton. When it was dedicated in 1962, city officials raved it had both beauty and a functional layout. The P-I said the building had grace and utility.

Click here to download a PDF about the 1962 dedication of that building.

By July 2003, when the City Council had their last meeting in the building, it had few fans. The last measure by the council was a mock condemnation ordinance. The ordinance recapped the history of the municipal building’s construction, including the rumor that the design was actually the recycled plans from a 1960s Texas hotel.

“In fact,” former Councilman Peter Steinbrueck joked, reading the ordinance, the building was actually designed by “Frank Lloyd Wrong, using the form of Brutalist Modernism that he popularized through the creative use of blue plastic panels, squat geometric shapes, Plexiglas and limited interior light.”

The ordinance quoted former Mayor Charles Royer as once saying “the best thing about working in (the municipal building) is that you don’t have to look at it.”

A P-I story at the time said Councilman Richard McIver was a bit chagrined at his cohorts’ wrecking-ball fervor. He came to work in the building when it was new.